Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 11:3

"By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear." — Hebrews 11:3 (ASV)

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed. The first instance of the strength of faith, to which the apostle refers, is that by which we believe the declarations of the Scriptures about the work of creation (Genesis 1:3). This is selected first, evidently, because it is the first thing that occurs in the Bible, or is the first thing narrated there that involves the exercise of faith.

He points to no particular instance in which this faith was exercised—for none is especially mentioned—but refers to it as an illustration of the nature of faith which everyone might observe in himself. The faith exercised here is confidence in the truth of the Divine declarations regarding creation.

The meaning is that our knowledge on this subject is purely a matter of faith in the Divine testimony. It is not that we could reason this out and demonstrate that the worlds were made this way; it is not that secular history goes back to that period and informs us of it; it is simply that God has told us so in His word. The strength of the faith, in this case, is measured:

1. By the fact that it is mere faith—that there is nothing else on which to rely in the case; and
2. By the greatness of the truth believed. After all the acts of faith that have ever been exercised in this world, perhaps there is none that is really stronger, or that requires higher confidence in God, than the declaration that this vast universe has been brought into existence by a word!

We understand. We apprehend it; we receive and comprehend the idea. Our knowledge of this fact is derived only from faith, and not from our own reasoning.

That the worlds. In Genesis 1:1, it is the heaven and the earth. The phrase the apostle uses denotes a plurality of worlds and is proof that he supposed there were other worlds besides our own Earth. How far his knowledge extended on this point we have no means of ascertaining, but there is no reason to doubt that he regarded the stars as "worlds," in some respects, like our own. For the meaning of the Greek word used here, see the commentary on Hebrews 1:2.

The plural form is used there also, and in both cases, it seems to me, not without design.

Were framed. It is observable that the apostle does not use the words make or create here. The word he does use—katartizw—means to put in order, to arrange, to complete, and may be applied to that which previously existed and was to be put in order or refitted (Matthew 4:24; Mark 1:19; Matthew 21:16; Hebrews 10:5).

The meaning here is that they were set in order by the word of God. This implies the act of creation, but the specific idea is that of arranging them in the beautiful order in which they are now.

Doddridge renders it "adjusted." Kuinoel, however, supposes that the word is used here in the sense of form or make.

It probably has about the meaning we attach to the phrase "fitting up anything"—as, for example, a dwelling—and includes all the previous arrangements, though the thing particularly denoted is not the making but the arrangement. So, in the work referred to here: "We arrive at the conviction that the universe was fitted up or arranged in the present manner by the word of God."

By the word of God. This does not mean here by the Logos, or the second Person of the Trinity, for Paul does not use that term here or elsewhere. The word he employs is rhma—rema—meaning, properly, a word spoken, and in this place, a command. (Compare Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20; Psalms 33:6: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.") In regard to the agency of the Son of God in the work of creation, see the commentary on Hebrews 1:2 and compare the commentary on John 1:3.

So that things which are seen. The point of the remark here is that the visible creation was not molded out of pre-existing materials but was made out of nothing. In reference to the grammatical construction of the passage, see Stuart's Commentary on this passage.

The doctrine taught is that matter was not eternal; that the materials of the universe, as well as the arrangements, were formed by God, and that all this was done by a simple command.

The argument here, so far as it is adapted to the apostle's purpose, seems to be that there was nothing that appeared, or that was to be seen, that could lay the foundation for a belief that God made the worlds. In like manner, our faith now is not to be based on what "appears," by which we could infer or reason out what would be, but we must exercise strong confidence in Him who had power to create the universe out of nothing. If this vast universe has been called into existence by the mere word of God, there is nothing we may not believe He has ample power to perform.